A great American freight and passenger route would be the Brightline in South Florida. The route should run 80 miles (127 KM) from Miami Central Station and Florida East Coast Railway’s Hialeah yard to the Port of West Palm Beach. It should include the Medley Branch, Hialeah yard, Port of Miami, Port of Fort Lauderdale, and Port of Palm Beach. All of these should provide plenty of switching freight services. Rolling stock: Florida East Coast ES44C4 SD40-2 GP40-2 Brightline SCB-40 Charger
This is a must-have route for me. It has a bit of everything: heavy freights, locals, yard operations, higher speeds, and passenger trains. The FEC GEVOs were recently repainted in a new Mexican RR-inspired livery (I prefer the older Champion Livery though; both should be included if we get this route). The ES44C4s were converted to run on a mix of diesel and LNG, using a fuel car sandwiched in between two back-to-back ES44C4s. Also, FEC rosters a number of GP38-2s, so those could be included as well (but I'd prefer the GP40-2).
great route, too bad that the full route would be too long for TSW (it received an extension all the way to Orlando, with more miles to come all the way to Tampa)... for me the biggest draw would be the streamlined Siemens set ... finally some highspeed modern diesel action
Brightline is a very requested route in TSW5 so it would be nice if it came to TSW5, also brightline is getting new trains, I think it's called the BLW-01 which is a siemens velaro novo, nevermind of that these trains are coming to brightline which I hope comes to TSW5
Thats Brightline West, not Brightline, which is for the High Speed line between California and Las Vegas.
I remember Miami - West Palm Beach as the most boring route I had in my TSC collection. Wouldn't buy it for TSW. Too boring of a route TBH.
That's Tri Rail's route with CSX trackage, and Amtrak trains, Brightlines route is more east of that line using FEC's trackage, though its still the same part of the state. Tri Rail runs to the Airport in Miami, while Brightline goes much closer to downtown. (Tri-Rail in Blue, Brightline the white dots)
And the FEC serves the ports in those cities. As it’s the dominant freight railroad in South Florida. So tons of switching can be done on this route. Not so much on the TS classic route on Tri Rail.
Before getting carried away, has anyone considered the licencing hurdle of the LAMPOIL process? In addition I assume the rail infrastructure is owned in whole or part by a Class One freight railroad and we know they are no longer cooperating with DTG for research purposes.
I still want to see the overseas railroad to Key West That one could be easier on the licensing rights, right? The state of Florida got all their assets in the bankruptcy?
You would still need the operator of the railroad at that time, which was still FEC, so you would still need FEC rights unless one just does it unbranded.
Ah, right, thought it was one of those cases of the operator going bust and all their trademarks and such ending up in the state's hands and being mothballed and someone else showing up and taking over the surviving physical routes.
Even then, trademarks could be passed on to whoever wants or pays for them. Examples such as... Milwaukee Road (Ended up with the Historical Society) Rock Island Railroad (Bought by Robert J. Riley, used as the corporate identity with reporting mark RILX) Pam Am (Bought by Guilford in the late 90's used as their identity till CSX took it over in 2022.)
Yeah, just in many cases it's easier to get them from some museum than any existing active business. It is always funny to think of Pan Am trains though, so I'm glad that one came up in your examples. See, progress being made towards more environmentally friendly modes of transport! XD
Perhaps I should have said “major” railroads. I honestly don’t know but it does seem as if DTG are struggling with anything US related outside of MBTA and LA Metrolink at present.
